A Scientific Theology: Theory

Our Price $ 44.00   Retail Value $ 50.00   You Save $ 6.00  (12%)   Item Number 143644

Buy New Item Quantity: 1 ABOUT TRUST ONLINE

In Volume 3 McGrath deals with the question of how reality is represented in Christian theology and the natural sciences. Building on the insights of thinkers like Martin Heidegger and Jrgen Habermas, McGrath argues that theory is to be conceived in terms of the "communal beholding of reality." Thus understood, theory is primarily a response to experienced reality, which, for the Christian community, demands theological expression. In the course of unpacking the implications of this perspective, McGrath addresses such subjects as the explanatory dimensions of theology, the place of metaphysics in Christian theology, and the nature of revelation itself.





Bible Knowledge Bookstore Book Buyers Tips
At Bible Knowledge Bookstore, we value our clients and if you have any questions on your Christian Books, then contact our support number and we will be more than happy to assist you.

As I've mentioned in my previous reviews, these books contain numerous interesting background studies that would be of help to anyone interested in the relationship between religion and science. On the other hand, these books come across as something like a collection of encyclopedia articles interspersed with a few observations by Prof. McGrath setting forth his own positions in a somewhat cursory manner.

Reviewing the final chapter, entitled "The Place of Metaphysics in a Scientific Theology", shows what is wrong with this work. McGrath discusses Ayer, Mach, Carnap, John Milton, Ritschl, Schleiermacher, Iris Murdoch, Ayn Rand (that's not a misprint), protocol sentences, etc. All of it is highly informative. I didn't know that Milton wrote an anti-metaphysical treatise on theology that wasn't rediscovered until 1823. Yet the points that McGrath makes are relatively few and general: we cannot escape metaphysics, even those who advocate a "functional Christology" are implicitly making metaphysical claims, and the like.

The entire series gives indications of being hastily written. Besides being repetitive, it appears that Prof. McGrath has read and written more on these issues than actually thinking about them. For example, on page 272, he states that E. O. Wilson's book CONSCILIENCE is "important" and discusses it in some detail. Yet in volume two, he said that the book was "disappointing." On the next page he tells us that B.B. Warfield was Charles Hodge's "colleague" at Princeton. In fact, Warfield didn't start teaching at Princeton until after Hodge died.